Baltimore Police Officer Will Serve Six Months for Beating

Carlos Miller

May 15, 2015

Baltimore Police Officer Will Serve Six Months for Beating Caught on Video.

A Baltimore police officer who was caught on surveillance video beating a man by repeatedly punching him in the face pleaded guilty to second-degree assault today, receiving a five year prison sentence.

However, the judge suspended all but six months of the sentence.

But who would ever think a cop would spend a single day behind bars?

Certainly not Vincent Cosom, who claimed in his police report that he was only defending himself against Kollin Truss who struck him in the body.

However, the video shows Truss was trying to walk away from him and never once struck him.

The incident took place on June 14, 2014, but the city surveillance video did not surface until three months later when the victim’s lawyer obtained the footage.

Charges against Truss were dismissed as the video turned into a national story.

The police report of the incident said Truss was loitering outside Charm City liquor store and appeared intoxicated, WJLA reported. He yelled an obscenity at Cosom when he was told to leave, the police report said.
Cosom said he moved in to make an arrest after he witnessed Truss push his girlfriend three times.
“At this time I went to place the male under arrest,” Cosom’s report states.
“He got into a fighting stance and clenched his fist. Me and the male got into a physical altercation due to me being in fear of my safety and I received a punch to the body.”
Truss was charged with assault, but the video tells a different story.

Cosom was initially charged with perjury along with assault because he had lied in his report, but that charge apparently disappeared as part of the plea deal. His lawyer said the beating was “simply a lapse in judgment,” according to the Baltimore Sun.

Two other cops who on the scene who backed up his claims were not charged, but their actions were “under review.”